Most SaaS users are relatively new, Gartner says

Friday, November 30, 2012 - 12:18pm

While Platform and Infrastructure as a Service cloud models are garnering significant attention in the private sector, it is Software as a Service that is truly picking up speed. A new study of more than 550 organizations worldwide by Gartner found that roughly 71 percent of SaaS users have been leveraging the technology for fewer than three years. This suggests that its momentum has been a recent activity.

The survey revealed that most decision-makers claim implementing new solutions or replacing existing systems are the primary reasons for deploying SaaS.

"Seeing such high intent to increase spending isn't a huge surprise as the adoption of the on-demand deployment model has grown for more than a decade, but its popularity has increased significantly within the past five years," said Charles Eschinger, research vice president at Gartner.

While many executives were initially concerned about how well cloud computing services would hold up in terms of security, reliability and availability, these fears have diminished as the technology matured and more companies began deploying the solutions. Now, enterprises worldwide are using the cloud because it can boost business agility, Eschinger said.

"Few organizations will completely migrate to SaaS," Eschinger continued. "These organizations will live with a mix of SaaS and traditional on-premises application deployment models with a focus on integration and migration between different deployment models."

These hybrid strategies will become increasingly common in the coming years as organizations continue to demand flexible service offerings, according to a separate Infosys report. As the cloud gathers perpetual momentum in the private sector, decision-makers will need to either get on board the train or risk losing an edge over the flexible, scalable competition.

Though there's no substitute for intuition in a creative industry, but big data certainly has its place in steering young designers and major fashion houses alike in the right direction for their next big show.